Yesterday, I was out practicing with my 70-200 2.8 with 1.7 converter...trying to get used to the weight, depth of field, etc. I went to a place where I knew there would be lots of ducks, egrets, herons, etc. It is a simple "park" pond encompassing about 4 acres. Surrounding the pond are several floating platforms with attached, hinged walkways. I was quite engaged is shooting several overly enamored ducks having a go at anything with feathers, and several others doing some rather vigorous bathing rituals...and I shot for about ten minutes.

When I turned to leave, something caught my eye on the exit walk that turned out to be three water moccasins of various sizes, the largest about 2 1/2 feet and probably as thick as my monopod. It was either a trip into the water - and that wasn't happening, or ..whaooo, a cell phone to call the police who in turn called the animal shelter who coincidently were housed in the park area. They sent over a snake wrangler who managed to trap the biggest guy but lost the other two. They take them to Ocala to be milked for anti-venom.

A. Always have your cell phone with you.B. Take a gander around you when shooting. Those guys could have just as easily slithered over to where I was standing as look at me and moccasins are very aggressive and territorial.C. Take an extra pair of drawers with you if you get caught like I did...I didn't but I was close...I've seen what a moccasin can do to human flesh and it isn't at all pretty.

Just around my house we have the Rattlesnake (Eastern Diamondback) which can grow to 8-10+ feet and as big around as your arm, the Pigmy Rattler, maybe a foot long and as round as your big toe but has the same potentcy of the 10 foot cousin; the Coral snake..red and black, friend to Jack, red and yellow kill a fellow identification markings, about the same size as the pigmy but they have to gnaw on you for a few to inject the venom - quite deadly; the Copperhead - ooh, blends in so nicely with fall leaves that you're more likely to step on him before you know he's there; and the Water Moccasin which can get up to five feet plus and is very deadly because it is territorial and aggressive. I've seen them chase people all the way up to their car.

I push a little wheeled stick in front of me when I'm in the deep woods just to let the slithery beasties know I'm there and give them ample room to slip away.

Oh-oh and we are just starting to get the pythons and boa constrictors up our way...lovely.

The most dangerous thing we have to look out for in the UK is stinging nettles

I was thinking exactly the same. Reminds me of a summer during my studies when we had some Aussie exchange students. We were playing frisbee and at some point that thing flew off into some bushes. Half of the Australians were too afraid to step into the bushes, the other half knew that there are no poisonous critters in Germany but they had never heard of stinging-nettles. Poor chaps were scratching their legs for the next two days

Yes you are right, at the height of the summer on a warm and windless day, it can become a bit like midgiegeddon around here, especially at the tourist hotspots, they know where we like to stand and gawp at the scenery it seems. Easy trick I have found though, is shoot near the coast (and being on an island that is never far away), as they cannot fly in anything more than a slight on-shore breeze, or simply keep moving, as again they cannot catch you if you are moving. Although I have found even in the height of summer on a still day, I can still do plenty of photography, I can get out of the car, set up a shot, fire off a few quick frames and then jump back into the car before they realise I am there and start to gang up on me.

I don't think he'd risk Scotland today: one half would try to kiss him and the other to kill him. Were I a saint, I certainly wouldn't want to risk it! Let 'em keep their pesky adder! Can't speak for Florida at large, but there used to be notices at the edges of some hotel grounds advising to keep away from piles of debris of any sort. He might find that interesting, but it was all I needed, as you can imagine.

Our rattlers are all sleeping in their limestone bluff "cavelets". Harmless unless you stick your hand into the hole or crevice to the nest, and even then, it has to be a warm-ish day. They will start waking up and migrating to the river in April.

This evening, I watched part of a film about the largest prehistoric snake; was based on the python type, made 48ft long, and eat enormous versions of the then current gigantic croc. They say.

They also said that a shipment of Burmese pythons escaped in Florida during a storm some years ago, and there are now thousands of them in the Everglades, pythons, not storms, though I guess there are plenty of those, too. It certainly gave raining lessons in Hollywood.

It's funny: when I was around eight, we moved to India for some years, and I used to run around the rocks and wasteland behind our house, armed with a catapult. (I was quite good with it.) Never saw a snake though cobras were around: there would be skins up on our upper terraces, brought along by passing birds, I hope. There were really large black scorpions, often on the insides of the window ledges, and I'd estimate them to be about six or seven inches long or so; they didn't bug me either. But then, after we returned to Britain, I discovered that I had a new dread of such things. Thank goodness I didn't suffer from it when younger. It totally destroyed any pleasure I might otherwise have had, many years later, from shooting in Africa. A nightmare.

I forgot to mention we also have scorpions, brown recluses, black widows, alligators, sting rays, sharks and the occasional barracuda. I only think Australia and Africa have more naughty critters than us.

The most dangerous thing we have to look out for in the UK is stinging nettles

Dave

I took a Canadian out mountain biking here in UK and whilst at home he had bears and other critters to worry about, he was a bit taken aback by our vicious vegetation. On that ride alone IIRC, I counted about 20 types of unfriendly vegetation after he expressed surprise when I mention beware of stingies. Brambles, stingies, hawthorn, gorse, giant hogweed, thistles..... I forget the rest off hand as I'm a bit rubbish with plant names. But until then I hadn't really twigged just how many kinds of skin damaging plants there, you simply avoided them as a matter of course.